I began writing for Forbes in 2010. It was just as the economy was starting to perk up and a fascinating time to cover the stock market, which I did for three months until I switched beats in September 2010. Now I contribute to the Leadership channel, with a focus on jobs and careers–-another hot topic in a time when people are vigorously hunting for jobs or desperately trying to hold on to the ones they have. I have a BA from the University of Arizona and a master's degree in journalism from Hofstra University. Follow me on Twitter @JacquelynVSmith, subscribe to me on Google+, or email me at jsmith [at] forbes [dot] com.

The Best And Worst Master's Degrees For Jobs

Thousands of new college grads will enter the workforce this year, but with unemployment at 9.1% and underemployment near 19%, many will put off the taxing job search process and opt out of the weak job market to pursue graduate degrees.

With this in mind, Forbes set out to determine which master’s degrees would provide the best long-term opportunities, based on salary and employment outlook. To find the mid-career median pay for 35 popular degrees, we turned to Payscale.com, which lets users compare their salaries with those of other people in similar jobs by culling real-time salary data from its 16.5 million profiles. We then looked at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ employment projection data to see how fast employment was expected to increase between 2008 and 2018 in popular jobs held by people with each degree. Finally we averaged each degree’s pay rank and estimated growth rank to find the best and worst master’s degrees for jobs.

As it turns out, although there are too few doctors in the U.S. and too few seats in medical schools, those shortages are good for one segment of the population: people who get degrees as physician assistants.

Physician assistants are medical professionals who provide diagnostic and preventative health care services under the supervision of doctors—and they’re in high demand.

“They are a good substitute for doctors in primary care,” says Al Lee, Payscale’s director of quantitative analysis. “There is a greater demand for medical professionals as the health care industry continues to grow strongly. And physician assistants are knowledgeable and capable, yet they’re cheaper than doctors.”

They don’t earn as much as doctors, but their mid-career median pay exceeds $100,000. Another advantage of a physician’s assistant degree: Employment opportunities are expected to grow 39% by 2018 (from the 2008 employment numbers), according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Would-be physician assistants need to take certain science classes to prep for a master’s program, but they can earn undergraduate degrees in almost any field. The growing demand for them and the promise of fat paychecks put physician assistant degrees at the top of the heap in Forbes‘ second-annual look at the best master’s degrees.

Mid-career median pay for these grads is $109,000, sixth best out of the 35 degrees in our survey. Employment opportunities for computer science degree-holders are expected to expand 27% between 2008 and 2018.

“We’re in the midst of the technology wave, and computer scientists are so highly valued,” says Lee. “Even though so many products and programs no longer require tech professionals’ services or skills, we still need people who really understand computers.” As long as people and businesses use technology, computer science degree-holders will be in demand, he adds.

Not all master’s degree holders enjoy anywhere near such optimistic job prospects or extraordinary pay. Getting a master’s in music, education or social work can be gratifying but pricy. Median mid-career median pay for all those degrees is under $60,000, and employment for them isn’t expected to grow significantly over the next few years.

Music degree-holders bring in $57,600 mid-career, on average. Common jobs for them include music teacher and music director, and there are expected to be just 11% more of them by 2018. “If you love music, then you may be able to have a career and live a good lifestyle with a master’s in music,” says Lee. “But make sure you’re getting a master’s degree for the right reasons.”

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I really enjoyed coming across this article, being that I am currently in the throws of physician assistant school. In addition to thanking jacquelyn for writing this article, I wanted to make a couple of clarifications. Entry requirements for PA schools include both an academic curriculum that includes most/all pre-medical school coursework (biology, anatomy and physiology, chemistry, organic chemistry, biochemistry, genetics, etc); however, each program has slightly different requirements. In addition, most programs require a certain amount of full-time work experience within the medical field prior to entry. To add, physician assistant school consists of a condenced medical school curriculum (average of 115 weeks compared to 155 weeks for medical school) and does not require a residency, although residency programs do exist. We are not trying to displace physicians, but rather work with them to expand coverage to a larger population. We did not go through less schooling to do the same job as physicians; We went through a long process of experience and school to develop competence in diagnosing and treating most conditions within the field of medicine we choose to practice, and in doing so, enable physicians to see people with more complicated healthcare matters.

“We’re in the midst of the technology wave, and computer scientists are so highly valued,” says Lee. As long as people and businesses use technology, computer science degree-holders will be in demand, he adds.”

Of course it’s not. I hire computer scientists and programmers and I am extremely picky about the people I hire. I naturally want the best of the best for my business. And from my experience of doing this over the past 7 years, I can tell you this for a fact: 9 out of 10 people I hire do NOT have a completed university degree.

In addition, 9 out of 10 college graduates I interview (including graduate and post-graduate students) are worthless in terms of relevant skills, productivity and agility of thought processes. (I’m not even talking about knowledge, because knowledge is the last thing I’m interested in when I hire new people.)

It’d be a lot easier to read the best/worst list if you’d just listed the information. The slideshow/picture component of this package adds nothing, the clip art provides no information, and it’s slow and cumbersome.

What about a Masters in Business Administration? I never thought I’d want to go back to school, but think furthering my education could be very beneficial to my career at this point. Not just because of money, but for more knowledge and to meet other people and network even. Right now I’m considering an executive or distance MBA program through Thunderbird – http://thunderbird.edu/.

The new #1 worthless masters degree is a MA in ‘Storytelling’ from East Tennesse State University. (ETSU.edu)

Imagine the dean of the school called a meeting with the other professors to create a meaningful master degree program that would give their students an edge in the work place and the best they came up with was a MA in ‘storytelling’. Brilliant!

The best a person could hope for, should they be brave enough to actually put that degree on a resume, is to sit on a porch of some Tennessee home telling folktales. It won’t make money but the person would be an authoritative storyteller.

This is a very timely article for me personally. I am starting my MBA with a concentration in Information Security Management. I did not see that on the worst list, so hopefully I am on the right track.

I strongly urge you to reconsider. An MBA is only worth pursuing if it is a top 20 school. Based on the fact that you are able to concentrate your study on ISM, I don’t think your school falls in that category. The return on investment just isn’t there for schools outside this category.